Deb has just finished breakfast. She plans to go outside and play with her friends. Her friends are free until lunch time.

After breakfast, her sister asks Deb to help her find her socks. At 10 am, Deb brushes her teeth and returns to her room.

Deb is on her way out and mom asks her to bring her laundry up from the den, clean up her room, and to practice her times tables before going out. Deb picks up her laundry and stops for 30 minutes to watch cartoons with her little brother.

It’s already 11:30 am, and Deb hasn’t practiced her times tables yet .

Task initiation is the ability to begin projects without procrastination. Most kids need adults to help them start their work. Parents do all kinds of things to help kids get started, including remind, cajole, reward completed tasks, implement consequences, nag, do the work with the kids, and so on.

For adults who also struggle with task initiation, managing our kids can be overwhelming.

Here are some steps that parents can take to change the family culture of procrastination:

• The parents are the executive CEO’s who manage the family. It’s very important to support each other and work together to set goals and make decisions.
• Partner conflict will interfere with the function of the family, so a high priority must be placed on addressing conflict.
• Assess Executive Function strengths and weaknesses in the parents as well as the children. Leverage the strengths of each family member to bolster the family system.
• Don’t be ashamed to seek out professional help if you need it.

Home can be a very difficult setting to plan and implement solutions to problems. Here is an excellent resource you can use to map out the changes you would like to see happen in your family:

Here’s a link to a blog post about a family who used Innovator’s Compass to solve packing school lunches:

http://redtri.com/what-this-lunch-hack-taught-our-whole-family/

References

Ben-Ur, E. (2017). Innovators Compass. Retrieved from Innovators Compass.org: http://innovatorscompass.org/about/

Dawson, P., & and Guare, R. (2016). Chapter11: Avoiding Procrastination/Task Initiation. In P. Dawson, & R. and Guare, Smart But Scattered Guide to Success (pp. 153-163). NY, NY: Guilford Press.

Tuckman, A. (2012). Chapter 10 Self-Activation: Starting Then Finishing. In A. Tuckman, Understand Your Brain, Get More done The ADHD Executive Functions Workbook (pp. 119-140). Plantation, FL: Specialty Press.